McCloud is hoping to add to city's IT staff

Mayor Brad McCloud wants to add to the city's IT staff, saying Reynoldsburg has "limped along" with only one full-time department employee for too long.

"I'm proposing we move funds around to hire a network administrator," he said at a finance committee meeting Nov. 5. "We would be using originally appropriated funds."

McCloud asked that council approve transferring $14,000 from the salary/elected officials account, placing $9,300 in the wages/staff account and moving other amounts to total $14,000 to pay for a network administrator through the end of this year.

The committee agreed to McCloud's request to send the appropriate legislation on to the full council as an emergency so it can be approved after just one reading instead of the usual three.

Finance committee members also agreed to return an ordinance regarding the redesign of the city website to the full council for a second reading. If approved, the legislation would authorize McCloud to enter into a contract with AFS (At First Site Inc.) for the work.

The first reading was held Oct. 22 after council discussed a contract with AFS during finance committee meetings on Oct. 15.

City IT Director Scott Teeters said the contract calls for paying AFS just under $30,000 for redesigning and hosting Reynoldsburg's website, with monthly support fees of $560 for two years.

AFS has designed websites for other central Ohio cities, school districts and corporations, including the cities of Gahanna and Delaware, which Councilman Cornelius McGrady III said he has viewed.

"I wanted to look at how AFS had designed their sites," he said. "It took forever for me to find the pay link for water bills on the Gahanna site. My suggestion is to make our website as user-friendly as possible."

Teeters said council members could decide which links would go on the first page of the website during the planning process.

Also on Monday, council's community development committee discussed the city's use of school district buildings and the high school fieldhouse. McGrady said he was concerned after hearing that the public no longer has access to the high school fieldhouse.

"Parks and Rec said there is no longer an agreement in place with the school district," he said.

Phil Kiser, acting director of the parks and recreation department, said the district has kept its facilities "as open as possible."

"Access to the fieldhouse has been a problem because the school is now using it so much themselves," Kiser said. "The in-season sports teams have first priority, then the next season teams. It has not helped that the main gymnasium on the Livingston campus has been out of commission because it is storing supplies for a renovation."

Kiser said the fieldhouse was open to the public "a few years ago," from 7:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday.

"Those times are no longer available to the general public because of increased school use," he said.